In his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II warned that, "It is at the heart of the moral conscience that the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, with all its various and deadly consequences for life, is taking place. It is a question, above all, of the individual conscience, as it stands before God in its singleness and uniqueness. But it is also a question, in a certain sense, of the 'moral conscience' of society: in a way it too is responsible, not only because it tolerates or fosters behaviour contrary to life, but also because it encourages the 'culture of death', creating and consolidating actual 'structures of sin' which go against life. The moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also as a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil, precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life. A large part of contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed 'of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth' (1:18): having denied God and believing that they can build the earthly city without him, 'they became futile in their thinking' so that 'their senseless minds were darkened' (1:21); 'claiming to be wise, they became fools' (1:22), carrying out works deserving of death, and 'they not only do them but approve those who practise them' (1:32). When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls 'evil good and good evil' (Is 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness." (No. 24).
When choice becomes god, when humanism becomes absolute, we are on the sure road to absolute despotism. A humanism without God will never humanize man. It will only succeed in driving man into the abyss of madness as he strives to wreck the world and civilization in a spirit of blasphemous joy out of satanic hatred for the Living God. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was convinced, and so am I, that when man denies God, he does not believe in nothing but instead will believe in anything and, as a fanatic, will wreck this world out of hatred for the God which he denies:
"There are men who will ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old fantastic tale. This is the last and most astounding fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the sword that cuts their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes...He [the atheist fanatic] sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who never lived at all." (Orthodoxy, pp. 238-239).
The choice is ours: a world where atheistic humanism is the official religion and men are enslaved in total bondage to the father of lies (John 8: 44) and the unnatural perversions which accompany this bondage or a world which embraces an authentic humanism, a community of love which "seeks the integral good of man" (Deus Caritas Est, No. 19) which is grounded in the Love of God.
When choice becomes god, when humanism becomes absolute, we are on the sure road to absolute despotism. A humanism without God will never humanize man. It will only succeed in driving man into the abyss of madness as he strives to wreck the world and civilization in a spirit of blasphemous joy out of satanic hatred for the Living God. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was convinced, and so am I, that when man denies God, he does not believe in nothing but instead will believe in anything and, as a fanatic, will wreck this world out of hatred for the God which he denies:
"There are men who will ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old fantastic tale. This is the last and most astounding fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the sword that cuts their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes...He [the atheist fanatic] sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who never lived at all." (Orthodoxy, pp. 238-239).
The choice is ours: a world where atheistic humanism is the official religion and men are enslaved in total bondage to the father of lies (John 8: 44) and the unnatural perversions which accompany this bondage or a world which embraces an authentic humanism, a community of love which "seeks the integral good of man" (Deus Caritas Est, No. 19) which is grounded in the Love of God.
The "pro-choice" crowd once again shows us that it is not really pro-choice. But anti-life. It would force those who cherish life to accept and even promote its killing agenda.
ReplyDeletePope John Paul II, in a Homily at the Holy Mass at the Capital Mall given on October 7, 1979, said: "...we will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life. When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, we will stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, with the right to a loving and united family..."
ReplyDeleteNo one has the authority. Any law which legalizes abortion is an unjust law and therefore no law at all.
We are duty bound to reject such a "law."
In Veritatis Splendor, No. 14, Pope John Paul II says, "Both the Old and the New Testaments explicitly affirm that without love of neighbour, made concrete in keeping the commandments, genuine love for God is not possible. Saint John makes the point with extraordinary forcefulness: "If anyone says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (Jn 4:20). The Evangelist echoes the moral preaching of Christ, expressed in a wonderful and unambiguous way in the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:30-37) and in his words about the final judgment (cf. Mt 25:31-46)."
ReplyDeleteWhere there is authentic love of neighbor, there is the desire to promote and defend the truth which sets us free (John 8:32).
The promotion of homosexual propaganda [such as that witnessed in the Catholic Free Press this week) is not a sign of authentic love. It is an act of spiritual violence. An act of hatred.
If we really love our neighbor, we desire only the best for them. We will be committed to bringing our neighbor truth, not falsehood.